I should still be sleeping! It had been a long, punishing day and night hosting media for breakfast at the deliciously quaint Rawdon’s in the KZN Midlands with Donovan Neale-May, my client from The Reeds at Balgowan who briefed the media on the why’s and wherefores. 

Kulula couldn’t start the engine (neither by air nor hand) so we had to wait an hour for another part to arrive. The short of it is we arrived in Joburg an hour later than expected, left dinner two hours later than planned and as the folks at Protea Wanderers couldn’t find the luggage we had had dropped off before we went to dinner – it was 2am before I got to bed!
 
The question, of course, is why I am awake at 6am when my body and my alarm suggests otherwise. I should have remembered from other property developments I’ve promoted, that construction is a messy business especially when the Midlands’ rains are in force. Despite my best tippy-toeinig my shoes (the only pair with me) got covered in mud.

I’ve become spoilt staying at luxury hotels where they have 24-hour housekeeping to take care if things like muddy shoes before a big day. Thomas, who was at the front desk during our hunt for the missing luggage, agreed to keep our shoes until housekeeping arrived at 6am for them to work their magic and return shoes to their former shine. It was Thomas who called at 6am to tell me that Housekeeping no longer handle shoes and they would be returned to my room unkept.

Antonia Labia is wearing pretty Cinderella-silver slip-ons with sequence that I hope will never see the light of day. Some things are meant for the night only and a future visit to Long Street’s Miam Miam will determine if this JV between model-boss Alf Aveling and chef Stephen Templeton will succeed in pulling the sun seekers as it does the night hawks.

It was Antonia Labia’s first event after leaving The Mount Nelson Hotel to go on her own, and she quickly learned that the key to column centimeters is to ensure that media types are quickly and adequately fed and watered. Hilary Prendini Toffoli who’s recently back from Italy arrived with her daughter.

I couldn’t tell you what Abigail Donnely and Amanda Gowing were wearing as they didn’t pitch (despite saying they would) while Dagmar Schumacher wondered how to get some of the young ‘n trendies onto her A list. Antonia may be able to pull the guys with the energy, but Dagmar pulls the guys with the money (and the influence) and time will tell if the Labia’s celebrated name is sufficient to pull the big-hitters.